INF30029 - Real World Project Evaluation: Donald Project Analysis

This report provides an evaluation of the Donald Project, a mineral sands project, examining the factors that contributed to its failure. The report begins with an executive summary and introduction outlining the project's context and objectives. It then details the background of the company, Wimmera Industrial Minerals (WIM), and the specifics of the Donald Project, including its location and planned operations. The report establishes criteria for measuring project success, focusing on schedule adherence and stakeholder satisfaction. The core of the report analyzes the reasons behind the project's failure, including delays in dewatering, financial constraints, and complexities in mining and refining processes. The analysis further explores the project's financial and regulatory aspects, highlighting issues such as equipment procurement delays, investor concerns, and disruptions related to environmental and cultural heritage management. The report concludes with recommendations for future mineral sand projects, emphasizing the importance of government support, community engagement, and detailed project planning. The report's structure follows a logical flow, presenting a comprehensive analysis of the Donald Project's shortcomings and offering valuable insights into project management best practices.

Running head: EVALUATION OF REAL WORLD PROJECT
Evaluation of real world project
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1EVALUATION OF REAL WORLD PROJECT
Executive Summary
Numerous global projects all around the world are getting failed each and every due to poorly
defined scope, inadequate risk management, failure to identify the challenges involved in the
project, lack of effective communication. Thus, each of these factors has to be studied in a
precise modus so that the chances of project failure gets reduced.
There are numerous scenarios behind most of the real-world projects, and there are numerous
real-world problems related to those projects as well, such as the lack of financial aid,
environmental concerns, lack of support coming from the management team, and maintaining
the schedule of the project.
The factors which ensure the success of the mineral sand projects, such as the support from
the regional government has to be focused while making the schedule of the project.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Background of the company..................................................................................................3
Selected project case..................................................................................................................3
Criteria to measure the chosen project.......................................................................................4
Reason behind failure.............................................................................................................5
Analysis of the case....................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
Recommendation........................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Project success criteria are defined as the type of criteria, which is very much useful
for the commercial organization to maintain the success rates of their projects (Bamberger
and Mabry 2019). There are numerous factors that might play a key role in maintaining the
criteria, such as the management skills of the project manager.
This report shall be focussing on the Donald Project which is the largest known Zirco
and Titanium project in recent times. Currently, this project is closed by its investigators as
this project was not completed within their estimated schedule. The details of this failed
project and the organizations related to it shall be discussed in the ensuing section of this
report.
Background of the company
Donald deposit was supposed to be one of the biggest projects of Wimmera
Industrial Minerals (WIM) (Pownceby, Bruckard and Sparrow 2020). This was one of the
largest underdeveloped mineral sands project in the world. However, there were numerous
challenges associated to this project as well in terms of the exploration licenses and the use of
advanced processing methods.
Selected project case
Located in the Murray Basin of Australia, Donald Project was supposed to be a
world class mineral sands project. There were diverse categories of offshore and onsite
operations related to this project (Klingner and Standing 2016). China Machinery
Engineering Corporation (CMEC) wanted to complete this mineral sand project within
USD $135M (Miningmagazine.com 2020). The project was supposed to create new job
opportunities in Australia (Li, Rakesh and Reddy 2016). The role of the Victorian

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government of Australia was very much critical as they provided the environmental
guidelines in terms of the Environment Effects Act (Hislop, Bosua and Helms 2018). Zircon
sand sales in China was initiated by Astron limited who had the procurement, procurement
and construction rights of this project (Astronlimited.com.au 2020)
Criteria to measure the chosen project
There are diverse criteria for the measurement of the success and failure of a project
such as maintaining the schedule of the project, satisfaction level of the stakeholders
involved in the project, and maintenance of the overall quality of the project. The success
criteria’s which is being considered to evaluate the selected project are maintaining the
schedule of the project and satisfaction level of the stakeholders involved in the project.
According to Pownceby, Bruckard and Sparrow (2020), maintaining the schedule of a
project is one of the most significant criteria to measure the success or failure of a project.
The researchers of this journal highlighted that tracking the changes made in a project and
communicating the progress of the project are the most significant contributions of project
scheduling. The researchers of this journal also highlighted that the dependencies and the
deadlines of a project can be managed using project scheduling software.
On the other hand, as described by Mason (2016), the investors of the project must be
monitoring each activity involved in a project. Their continued engagement and interest in the
project is very much required for the successful completion of the complex projects. The
researchers of the paper also suggested that the quality of the outcome of each phase has to be
of the highest order so that the overall quality of the project is maintained.
Thus, it can be said that the project schedule, satisfaction level of the investors of the
project and maintaining the quality of outcome in each phase of the project are the important

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criteria’s which can be considered to analyze the failure and the success of a project. These
are the criteria which is selected to analyze the selected real-world project.
Reason behind failure
This project is considered as a failed project as it did not finish with the schedule
which was estimated prior to the start of this project. Huge amount of time was wasted to de-
water the entire area where mining was required (Guzzini, Iacobucci and Palestrini 2018).
Additional financial support was provided from the investors in the initial level. However, it
was found that this project shall never be completed within the estimated schedule ad
resources. Removal of the topsoil and the subsoil tool more time than expected. The dry
mining procedure, which was considered in this project was very much complicated as a
result, separate training sessions were given to workers of this project (Hughes et al. 2016).
The magnetic separation required during the refinement of the ore was also taking more time
than it was expected. Thus, there were lots of uncertainties associated to this project and
finally it called by Astron limited as they terminated their business contract with China
Machinery Engineering Corporation.
Analysis of the case
The analysis of this project shall be based on the criteria which were formed in the
previous sections of this report. The total valuation of this sand mining project was USD
$135M and the CMEC was the prime contractor of this project. The board of directors of
Donald Mineral Sands was very much excited about the progress of the projects in its initial
stages, however, the delay caused due to the use of conventional methods to process the
minerals was a huge source of concern for them. There were other issues associated to this
project as well, such as the delay in the purchase of the equipment, which was one of the
most essential activities of this organization. The investors of this project made sure to make

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the payments on a milestone basis. On the other hand there were other investors associated
with this project as well such as DMS itself, 15% of the total cost of the project came from
DMS. The rights and regulatory approvals of this project was supposed to be provided from
DMS, at the same time, the contractual agreements and the insurance schemes of the workers
of this project were also looked after by DMS. All the issues which ultimately delayed each
phase of this project was a huge source of concern for all the investors of this project. Their
expectation from the project was not getting fulfilled after the initial stages of the project.
Hence it can be said that the satisfaction level of the investors of this project was very much
on the lower side.
The quality of the initial stages of this project is very much on the higher side as every
project activity was going as per the schedule of the project. However, there were issues in
the long term mining plan of this project. Statutory approvals was required to minimize the
environmental effects of the project as well. However, there were several disruptions after the
completion of the first phase of the project as the Culture Heritage Management Plan,
which was under section 49 of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 (Winter and Brooke 1993).
The schedule of this complex project was further delayed due to the lack of a Mining
License, which comes from the Minister of Energy and Resources. The schedule of the
project was further delayed as the Radiation Management Plan of this project was rejected
by the Victorian government. Thus, based on the monthly audit procedures, it was identified
that the entire schedule of the project has to be revised. There are uprisings from the local
communities as well as some of the native vegetation practices will be stopped after the
successful completion of this project. The decision-making team again revised the entire
schedule of the project, all the work plan procedures were revised, and additional funds were
allocated from the prime investors of this project. However, the condition of the project was
affected even after the re-scheduling of all the activities of the project. It was assumed that

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the complications and the challenges of this project is about to increase, and it can an adverse
effect on both the schedule of the project as well as on the overall quality of the final outcome
of the project. Hence, on the basis of the chosen selection criteria of this project, it can be
said that this is a failed project.
Conclusion
There are numerous factors that have to be considered in the first place prior to the
start of a mineral sand project, such as the support coming from the local and the central
government regarding the environmental concerns and the other legal issues. Support from
the local community is very much required in a mineral sand project. There are diverse
categories of challenges in these projects, and some of them cannot be identified prior to the
start of the project; hence the schedule of these projects must be made accordingly. Investors
of the mineral sand projects must be aware of the challenges of this project, which can help
them to select the appropriate contractors.
Recommendation
The recommendations of this real-world project to rerun in the future are as
followings:
 Getting the supporting from the local government of Victoria is very much required to
deal with the legal challenges of this project in terms of environmental regulations
and protocols.
 Training sessions for the local community is very much recommended as it can help
them to understand the opportunities of this project.
 The schedule of the project must be broke down into pieces, and there must be a long
lay off period between each phase of this project.

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 A clear road map must be created and shared with all the investors of the project. The
roadmap must also state the assumptions, uncertainties and challenges associated with
this project.

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References
Astronlimited.com.au. 2020. Astron - DONALD MINERAL SANDS. [online] Available at:
<http://www.astronlimited.com.au/projects-operations/DONALD-MINERAL-SANDS.aspx>
[Accessed 7 April 2020].
Bamberger, M. and Mabry, L., 2019. RealWorld evaluation: Working under budget, time,
data, and political constraints. SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
Guzzini, E., Iacobucci, D. and Palestrini, A., 2018. Collaboration for innovation and project
failure. A dynamic analysis. Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 27(8), pp.695-
708.
Hislop, D., Bosua, R. and Helms, R., 2018. Knowledge management in organizations: A
critical introduction. Oxford University Press.
Hughes, D.L., Dwivedi, Y.K., Rana, N.P. and Simintiras, A.C., 2016. Information systems
project failure–analysis of causal links using interpretive structural modelling. Production
Planning & Control, 27(16), pp.1313-1333.
Klingner, D. and Standing, C.A., 2016. WIM150 mineral sand deposit, Murray Basin,
Australia: geology and mineral resources. Applied Earth Science, 125(3), pp.121-127.
Li, Y., Rakesh, V. and Reddy, C.K., 2016, February. Project success prediction in
crowdfunding environments. In Proceedings of the Ninth ACM International Conference on
Web Search and Data Mining (pp. 247-256).
Mason, A.J., 2016. The history of mineral sands in the Murray Basin ‘Is it a new mineral
sand frontier-or just more of the same?’. Applied Earth Science, 125(3), pp.114-120.

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Miningmagazine.com. 2020. Australian Mineral Sands Project Gets Chinese Contractor.
[online] Available at:
<https://www.miningmagazine.com/development/news/1262495/australian-mineral-sands-
project-chinese-contractor> [Accessed 7 April 2020].
Pownceby, M.I., Bruckard, W.J. and Sparrow, G.J., 2020. Technological developments in
processing Australian mineral sand deposits. Journal of the Southern African Institute of
Mining and Metallurgy, 120(2), pp.105-112.
Pownceby, M.I., Bruckard, W.J. and Sparrow, G.J., 2020. Technological developments in
processing Australian mineral sand deposits. Journal of the Southern African Institute of
Mining and Metallurgy, 120(2), pp.105-112.
Winter, I. and Brooke, T., 1993. Urban Planning and the Entrepreneurial State: The View
from Victoria, Australia. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 11(3),
pp.263-278.